Hacker News Reader

Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

Wow, I'm shocked at the negative attitudes in this thread. Porn and gambling are legit businesses, even if you don't like it. (And some people used to argue that part of the rise of the PC was because some people bought it as a "porn machine.")

It's important to keep these things (almost) in the open, because when they become illegal, criminals move in and people get hurt.

When I was an intern at a big-name, conservative company, one of my friends came from a porn website.

View on HN

Also its silly to vilify porn and gambling but not social media and the plethora of seemingly socially acceptable / legal things which are still legitimately destroying the fabric of society. Most haters are just as culpable.

plenty of people vilify social media on this site. do you think any post criticizing one thing also needs to list out every other thing the poster doesn't like?

I've also been shocked by the censoriousness around gambling in particular on HN recently. I feel like this is filtering in from some culture war that I'm not exposed to as a part of my information diet.

Hmm.. I've had some customers be gamblers. It's kind of sad to see. These are like middle aged dads of various economic classes that are desperately chasing a high when they should be focused on their families. To me, gambling and porn are yet more strains on the most important social institution: the family. It's fun, but it's bad for society, for those who care about that

If it's not gambling, it'll be something else: video games, alcohol, drugs, religion, work... Anyone can turn anything into a vice to the detriment of their family.

Don't blame the vice, blame the person.

The advertising of gambling is becoming a problem in itself. I'm mostly adblocking and even I'm aware of it.

There's been a spate of articles on left leaning sites about the harms of prediction markets and gambling over the last 6 months or so, along with a tie to the current admin to glaze the article among anti-Trump and anti-corruption people.

One thing I've noticed about HN in recent years is if publications (right or left) start posting about something, the topic turns quickly into flamewar territory. What used to be subtle debate turns into slogans copy/pasted from these articles along with hyperbole. Hard to avoid I guess with how big HN has become.

one of those things is not like the other

Uhh, yeah, they're both different from each other, but are you implying that one of them is worse than the other? Which one?

Porn is repeatedly demonized but the supposed evils are pretty much nonexistent. No, porn isn't destroying marriages; rather, people in failing marriages often turn to porn. For porn to be more attractive than reality there must be something wrong with the reality.

Actually when they become illegal less people do them. The problem is that you view men (criminials) killing each other as a bigger loss than women being raped, killed and objectified. There is an optimal ballance, but you are unable to see it because of your bias towards dehumanizing women, caused by porn addiction.

Are you arguing that it's better that the sex or porn work is done illegally, without the ability to pay taxes, follow the law, forced into rh underworld and into the cartels and gangs?

Wow. That will certainly do better for sex trafficking and illegal porn. Criminalising all of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com